Friday, 14 March 2014

Book Review: Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K Hamilton(Anita Blake #1)

Anita Blake may be
small and young, but vampires call her the Executioner. Anita is a
necromancer and vampire hunter in a time when vampires are protected by
law—as long as they don't get too nasty. Now someone's killing innocent
vampires and Anita agrees—with a bit of vampiric arm-twisting—to help
figure out who and why.

Trust is a luxury Anita can't afford
when her allies aren't human. The city's most powerful vampire,
Nikolaos, is 1,000 years old and looks like a 10-year-old girl. The
second most powerful vampire, Jean-Claude, is interested in more than
just Anita's professional talents, but the feisty necromancer isn't
playing along—yet. This popular series has a wild energy and humor, and
some very appealing characters—both dead and alive.

My Review:Anita
Blake is paid to raise the dead for private clients. She is also a
court appointed vampire hunter if one needs to be executed. The highly
dangerous Master Vampire wants to hire her to find out who is killing
vampires across the city and Anita soon discovers that saying no to this
request threatens those closest to her, giving her no choice but to
cooperate.

I like Anita because she is tough and mouthy, and
refuses to take crap from men who don't respect her. She is also capable
of being vulnerable, scared and making mistakes. I liked that the
author showed us when Anita was scared witless as it made her real and
someone that you could care about. But what I really liked was her moral
code, refusing to sleep around or date monsters, and determined to keep
her humanity. This was quite refreshing in the genre and made me like
her more. If only I had known what was to come later in the series, I
might not have started the books! This Anita is a country mile from the
dumb uber-slut in later books. This Anita rocks! It was good also to
have the realism of a battle scared Anita. A small human girl like this
could not have done the job without vampire bites and battle scars.

I
always like the books when Edward pays a visit as I love the danger
that just oozes out of him. He is very well written and you just know
that this is a guy you don't want to cross, ever! We also meet Jean
Claude, who I admit I wasn't greatly keen on. I'm never a fan of guys
who manipulate and bully female heroes in books and I did not warm to
him here, especially when he is determined to link her to him against
her will. When he appears on the page, I'm like 'boo, hiss, leave her
alone dead boy!'

The plot was decent as well. I liked the idea
of a world where human and non human had to live together under strict
rules to protect both sides. People aren't allowed to just go around
killing vampires or humans without punishment. The Master Vampire has to
control his or her monsters and cooperate with law enforcement. Which
is where Anita comes in, as nobody else is keen on doing it.

Random
annoyances? The constant description of Anita's clothes and weapons
every time she gets changed! That and Jean Claude getting on my nerves.

It's
not the best book in the series(that for me was book 6) but it was a
good start to what is now a very long running series. Recommended to
fans of urban fantasy and paranormal romance.

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